A marine turbine power plant must be provided with large volumes of relatively pure air to operate efficiently and reliably. Typically, air to supply the turbine engine is drawn from intakes on the upper superstructure of the ship to minimize entry of water spray. Further, the air is normally passed through a moisture separator which filters water and other contaminants out of the air flow.
Moisture separators will occasionally become clogged sufficiently to impair the supply of air to the engine. In most applications, this requires the engine to be shut down and the separator cleaned. However, in certain situations, particularly on warships in a combat situation, it may be desirable to bypass the clogged moisture separator to keep the engine running. In a combat situation, the damage done by the entry of dirty bypass air to the engine is far outweighed by the need to keep the engine operational in the short term.
In the past, various designs have been developed for a moisture separator which normally will be positioned in the air flow path, but which can be blown open under certain circumstances to allow air to bypass the moisture separator. An example of such a design is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,312,645 issued Jan. 26, 1982 and assigned on its face to the Parmatic Engineering Company. In a different area, U.S. Pat. No. 3,411,272 to Carmon discloses an air filter for use in a helicopter turbine. However, a need still exists for the development of a design that increases efficiency, reliability and maximizes cost effectiveness.